Chaos has rocked the UFC 232 card, which was scheduled for December 29 in Las Vegas. According to a report from MMAjunkie, a drug test taken by former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has caught an ‘atypical finding’ — a trace amount of Chlorodehydromethyltestosterone or turinabol. This is the same drug Jones tested positive for after his UFC 214 fight with Daniel Cormier.
According to this report from MMAjunkie, the Nevada State Athletic Commission does not have adequate time to investigate this finding and clear Jones to fight on the 29th. As a result, the UFC has moved the entire UFC 232 card to The Forum in Inglewood, California. The card will still occur on the same night.
To be clear, this ‘atypical finding’ does not represent a failed drug test for Jon Jones.
UFC VP of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitzky told MMAjunkie that this blip on Jones’s test is likely the result of something called “pulsing” rather than his recent ingestion of a banned substance. Novitzky says the the amount of turinabol detected on this Jon Jones test is equivalent to a “picogram.”
“A picogram is a one-trillionth of a gram,” Novitzky told MMAjunkie. “If you put one grain of salt on the table and split it up into 50 million pieces, a picogram is one of those pieces of that gram of salt. These levels have shown up in the single and double digits of picograms – so such a small amount.”
“There’s been no violation of the anti-doping program,” Novitzky added. “He’s been cleared to fight in terms of the USADA program. … USADA fully analyzed it internally. They reached out to outside experts from around the world. They reached out to another sports league that has seen the same issue. And all of them, independent of us, determined that this was not a reingestion of the substance and this very, very small amount that was occurring and still showing up, according to these expects from around the world, did not provide any performance-enhancing benefit.
“Not much is known about this longterm metabolite. The parent compound is not approved for human use anywhere in the world … but what both USADA and other entities are seeing is that a recurrence, or potential ‘pulsing,’ where you have multiple negative tests and then a positive one for a very low amount – they’re seeing that quite commonly over time. And no one knows how long this could last – it could potentially last forever (in Jones’ system).”
MMAjunkie also acquired a statement from the Nevada State Athletic Commission which reads as follows:
“Today, Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) Executive Director Bob Bennett announced that, in consultation with NSAC Commission Chair Anthony Marnell III, unarmed combatant Jon Jones will be allowed to withdraw his pending application for licensure, which was intended to clear him to fight in a major contest in Nevada later this month,” the statement reads.
“After extensive analysis of Mr. Jones’ prior 18 months of USADA in- and out-of-competition anti-doping drug testing results, Director Bennett, Chair Marnell and Mr. Jones agree that he will appear at an evidentiary hearing in January. This will allow for a measured, thoughtful and comprehensive discussion of his anti-doping testing protocol and results and provide an opportunity for the NSAC to determind the appproriate path forward for him in Nevada. We look forward to this hearing.”
Stay tuned for more information on the Jon Jones situation as it emerges.
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 12/23/2018.